I have come to really understand how donors’ big-hearted and generous gifts are helping provide me with treatment options. Treatment options which did not exist this time last year. Donors’ commitment has funded melanoma clinical trials at CancerCare Manitoba; trials which may give me a new lease on life.

Five years ago my cancer started with a mole on my lower back which turned out to be the snowball which started my cancer journey. At diagnosis, the doctors determined the cancer had already entered my lymphatic system. Overnight, my cancer went from stage I to stage III.

Immunotherapy was planned however I developed acute liver toxicity and we had to stop treatment. I didn’t qualify for clinical trials at that point so I was told to stay out of the sun and hope it wouldn’t come back.

We carried on in the face of the unknown.

I run a landscaping business and by the time I was diagnosed I had 40 years’ worth of sun in eight years of working outside. Genetic tests confirmed with near certainty my cancer was caused by this sun exposure.

After my initial diagnosis we carried on and lived our lives as happily as we could, in three-month chunks between tests. Fast forward four years and terrible news, just this past June three more tumours were discovered.

The cancer couldn’t be cut out or I’d have lost my arm. Fortunately I didn’t have to face that terrible choice because it was determined surgery wouldn’t have increased my odds. That’s where we were, up until three months ago, living with a terminal cancer diagnosis.

Knowing this, life was like driving a vehicle without a steering wheel, just moving forward. I had absolutely no control.

Donor’s support has made a world of difference for me.

Shortly after my last relapse, new drugs became available because of a successful clinical trial run right here in Manitoba. The generosity of people from across the province I have never even met made this miracle possible.

Science is moving so very fast. It’s really amazing. If my third relapse had happened last fall my diagnosis would have remained terminal.

My treatment comes with significant challenges

Immunotherapy is very new and there are side effects which the doctors are just learning about. The drugs can be very toxic and some simply don’t work for me. I no longer have my thyroid and my pituitary is headed that way.

We don’t know love without cancer.

The support of donors like you makes it possible for us to continue our love story. We have been partners since the beginning of my journey, continuously celebrating life’s little victories. We celebrated a major milestone in August, our wedding. We wanted to do something meaningful; instead of gifts, we asked for donations to the Foundation. We are so grateful for each and every one of the generous gifts made in our honour.

We remain very hopeful but it’s tough to dream far ahead.

I struggle to look too far into the future as I don’t know if we will get there. Madison, on the other hand, dreams of our next adventure together; hoping my health allows us to fix up this old truck we bought so we can take it for Sunday ice cream next summer. It might seem like a small thing, but it’s big to us.